Classic Horror - including 'Nosferatu' with live organ accompaniment October 22, 2010

All Screenings In 35mm --

Friday, October 22 8PM
“Brides of Dracula” Starring Peter Cushing, Yvonne Monlaur, Marita Hunt, David Peel, Freda Jackson. Directed by Terence Fisher. (1960, 86mins., Color) Suitable for most audiences.

$6 for Adults; $4 for Seniors (65+) and Children (12 & younger).

If Universal Pictures distilled and defined the horror movie in black & white during the 1930s and ‘40s, the British studio Hammer Films re-imagined and redefined the genre in color beginning in the late 1950s. Brides of Dracula was the studio’s second vampire film, the sequel to its Horror of Dracula. A young woman is stranded in a foreboding Transylvanian village and encounters a handsome young Baron, who turns out to be a vampire. In her ignorance, the young woman looses the vampire upon a girl’s school -- and herself. Fortunately, the arch nemesis of all vampires, Dr. Van Helsing, arrives to help. Brides is one of the best examples of the revised conventions Hammer established for the gothic horror genre: in addition to the glorious color cinematography – and especially bright red blood -- there are lavish sets, impressive costumes, and an even more potent erotic undertone (though certainly nothing explicit) than Universal ever dared suggest. In this, it is a precursor to the plethora of erotically charged vampire tales that have appeared in recent years. Strong performances, good writing, action and intrigue also make the film a horror classic.

Saturday, October 23 6PM
“Son of Frankenstein” Starring Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Basil Rathbone, Lionel Atwill. Directed by Rowland V. Lee. (1938, 99mins., B&W) Suitable for most audiences.

$6 for Adults; $4 for Seniors (65+) and Children (12 & younger).

Boris Karloff as Frankenstein’s Monster is one of the most legendary performances in movie history. Karloff portrayed the Monster for the third and final time on the big screen in Son of Frankenstein. As if that wasn’t enough to make the film a classic, Karloff was joined by Bela Lugosi in what, arguably, was his finest Hollywood performance. When Dr. Frankenstein’s son, who has lived in America most of his life, returns to his ancestral home, he finds that local villagers still remember and fear his father’s creation. Goaded by a sinister man (Lugosi) living amid the ruins of his father’s castle, Frankenstein decides to revive his father’s Monster – but to reform its brutish nature and thereby vindicate his father’s memory. Of course . . . things don’t work out as Frankenstein had planned! It would not have been surprising if this second sequel proved shop-worn, but Son of Frankenstein is a well crafted continuation of the Frankenstein saga, boasting an intelligent script, extraordinary sets and cinematography that continue the German Expressionist influence on American horror movies – and great performances by all, especially Karloff and Lugosi.

Saturday, October 23 8:20PM
“Nosferatu” Starring Max Schreck, Alexander Granach, Gustav von Wangenheim, Greta Schroeder. Directed by F.W. Murnau. (1922, 84mins., B&W). Suitable for most audiences.

- - - Silent with Live Organ Accompaniment - - -
By Wayne Zimmerman on the Loew’s Wonder Morton.

$8 for Adults; $6 for Seniors (65+) and Children (12 & younger).

In our time of CGI, surround-sound and even the revival of 3-D, an 88 year old German silent film remains one of the most chilling and legendary horror movies ever made. Nosferatu was the first – although unauthorized – feature film version of Bram Stoker’s “Dracula”. Stoker’s widow sued and won over copyright infringement, and all copies of Nosferatu were supposed to have been destroyed, but fortunately a few prints survived. Ironically, Nosferatu is now considered one of the best interpretations of Stoker’s Dracula ever filmed. Still, it differs from the book in several notable ways, including the names of central characters and locations. It, not the book, cemented into the Dracula canon the idea that vampires are destroyed by sunlight. And the ending differs from Stoker’s, and is one of the more suggestive mixes of innocence and evil, self-sacrifice and eroticism of the silent era. The singular performance and truly lurid makeup of Max Schreck as the vampire is one of the most iconic representations of evil ever filmed. But the greatest source of the film’s enduring power is the eerie look and truly disquieting mood that pioneering director F. W. Murnau achieved by merging German expressionist style with real location settings, daring experimentation with stop-motion and reverse-negative effects, and the use of dramatic shadows and long angles – which became a kind of visual lexicon for horror on film. When this is combined with live organ accompaniment, as it will be at the Loew’s Jersey, Nosferatu is a truly unforgettable experience.

(Film descriptions compiled from various sources.)

Combo discount is available this weekend for “Brides” and “Son” ONLY.

The Loew's Is Easy To Get To: The Loew's Jersey Theatre, at 54 Journal Square, Jersey City, NJ, is directly across JFK Boulevard from the JSQ PATH Center with trains to and from Lower and Midtown Manhattan and Newark's Penn Station, and is minutes from the NJ Turnpike, Rts 3 and 1&9 and the Holland & Lincoln Tunnels. We're easy to reach by car or mass transit from throughout the Metro Region.

Discount off-street parking is available in Square Ramp Garage adjoining the Loew's at the foot of Magnolia Avenue off of Tonnele Avenue, behind the Loew's. Patrons must validate their parking ticket before leaving the Theatre.

What’s Special About Seeing A Movie At The Loew’s? The Landmark Loew’s Jersey Theatre is one of America’s grandest surviving Movie Palaces. We show movies the way they were meant to be seen: in a grandly ornate setting – on our BIG 50 ft wide screen! The Loew’s runs reel-to-reel -- not platter -- projection, which often allows us to screen an archival or studio vault print that is the best available copy of a movie title.

PLUS – Live organ entrance music (from the Loew’s magnificently restored pipe organ) before most screenings.

Official Website: http://www.loewsjersey.org